Scott defends capitalism with "First they came" Holocaust quote

Florida Gov. Rick Scott has not endorsed a candidate in the U.S. presidential contest, but he strongly endorsed the “free market” Thursday morning, using a Holocaust-era quote to encourage business leaders to defend capitalism during the presidential primaries.

“I’ve got a quote in my office,” he said before paraphrasing Martin Neimöller’s famous statement criticizing the complacency of some during the Nazi-era. “First they came for the Jews, and I wasn’t a Jew so I didn’t say anything...”

He linked the quote to criticisms, made by presidential candidates former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, about Bain Capital, which former Mass. Gov. MittRomney started.

“We shouldn’t be allowing candidates to attack people in business, we should be saying… 'That’s us',” Scott said at a quarterly board meeting of Enterprise Florida, the state’s economic development partnership with private businesses.

Scott is a former CEO who ran several businesses prior to becoming governor last year. After the speech, he said he used to quote to say the free market was worth defending.

“When you see somebody being attacked because they live the American dream, we ought to go out and say, ‘Gosh, I’d like to live the American dream’,” he said.

Scott's Press secretary, Lane Wright, later told the Associated Press that the comment was used to make a point, and should not been seen as a Holocaust comparison.

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

It's funny because the quote he's riffing off of specifically talks about a fascist government's demonization/arrest of communists and union members. It's always a bit surreal when conservatives stoke their victimization complex by appropriating historical examples of the persecution of left-leaning people, because that type of persecution has been MUCH more common in Western history and American history especially.

"First Rick Scott came for the teachers, but I said nothing as my kids were nearly out of school."

"Then he came for the university professors, but, my kids don't take anthropology so I said nothing."

"Then he came for the prisons and handed those over to corporations. and still I said nothing I hadn't broken any laws."

"Then he came for the writers and thinkers and the political activists, and I thought, severs those people right for being so mouthy."

"Then he came for our county commissions, our school boards, he wanted it all. And since I had said nothing all through this, there was no one left to help me. Now I am in corporate jail raising tilapia in a fish pond for 25 cents a day."

Dear David Kearns: Your reply says it all; thank you for speaking for the rest of us. ". . . the comment was used to make a point, and should not been seen as a Holocaust comparison" is disingenuous, at best, dangerously provocative, at worst. The arrogance of power can kill. Just ask the six million innocent souls who lost their lives at its brutal hands.

This, coming from the most prolific enemy of the taxpayer(see history of collossal fruad)in the USA. Pathetic phony, and horrid excuse for a human being. Rick, time to grow a conscience. HOW DID HE WIN GOV. of floriduh???